An Amherstburg resident who researched her great-grandmother and what led her from Scotland to Canada has seen that research result in an exhibit in Scotland. Jamie Lees curated “Left at the Wellgate: The Untold Story of Mary Petrie Smith” and that will run from Sept. 14 to Oct. 14 at the Central Dundee Library in Scotland.
The exhibit delves into Smith’s background, including her leaving her two young sons in their pram outside a pub in The Wellgate before leaving for Canada on Sept. 11, 1911 and the possible motives for doing so.
Lees, who co-owns Amherstburg-based Jank Words and Pictures, said she started doing research into her family over 20 years ago. She discovered the story about her great-grandmother, the depth of which few in Canada knew much about.
“To make it even more crazy, I found out she had two sons,” said Lees.
Lees’ research included sending for death certificates of the two sons, one living into his 80s and the other into his 90s, and writing letters to relatives that appeared on the death certificates.
“In 2005, I went to Scotland,” she said, staying with members of her great-grandmother’s family. They gave her more details and Lees ended up going to the area where the two boys were left. Trying to go up a set of stairs proved emotional.
“By the third step, I couldn’t go up. It felt like wind or a blow to the chest,” she said. “I just started crying an uncontrollable cry. I was overwhelmed by feelings of shame and sadness.”
While there were points where Lees questioned whether she should continuing researching into her great-grandmother, she said she would continually get some sort of sign to forge on, as if her great-grandmother wanted her to tell her side of the story.
Lees said the journey to uncover the truth behind her family’s mystery “profoundly affected her, leading her from deep sorrow to a sense of peace as she felt her great-grandmother’s spirit guiding her through the process.”
During the lockdown, Lees researched further and it led her to communicating with representatives in The Wellgate. The exhibit proved to be the kind of story they wanted to tell, she said.
Part of the exhibit invites visitors to explore various possibilities of what actually happened in Sept. 1911 and what drove Mary to make the decision she did.
Scotland was experiencing overcrowding and starvation in 1911. Her first husband William Clark was not as motivated as Mary. Research has shown the family moved from a nice home to a small tenement with Mary possibly facing “a precarious family situation” due to it.
Were these reasons for Mary to make that decision?
It remains unclear what the motivation was, but the exhibit could cause more people to reveal further stories on Mary and what happened at the time.
Mary was actually caught by police in Port Glasgow before setting sail for Canada with William stating he didn’t want any wife that would abandon her children, Lees’ research shows. Mary would marry Andrew Lees after arriving in Canada and they travelled extensively for his work.
“It literally is 20 years worth of research,” she said of her exhibit. “It has been exciting. Research is still ongoing.”
The Clark family in Scotland as well as family in Canada are eager to find out more, Lees added.
Dr. Erin Farley, Project Lead and Library & Information Officer, Central Library, Dundee, Scotland, where the exhibition will take place, notes in a press release “we’ve collaborated with Jamie in Canada from Scotland to create an immersive experience that sheds light on the social and cultural context of early 20th-century Dundee. This exhibition not only honors Mary Petrie Smith’s legacy but also enriches our understanding of the historical landscape in which she lived.”
Mary would return to Scotland, possibly to try and find her boys, years later and risked abandonment and bigamy charges, the latter being because she never actually divorced her first husband William.
Mary would eventually leave Canada for Scotland after Andrew died in 1966. She would die there in 1971.
Lees said she is also writing a play on the topic with it being produced by Show Studios in Walkerville. She also hopes to have it shown in Scotland. Her husband Frank D’Angelo, who also is an owner with Jank, helped considerably with the exhibit, she said.
For more information on the project, visit https://www.jank.ca/leftatthewellgateexhibition or www.leisureandculturedundee.com/event/33287.
Amherstburg resident heads to Scotland to curate her own exhibit
By Ron Giofu
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